Monthly Archives: January, 2021

(The Center Square) – Reeves County and Pecos-Barstow-Toyah Independent School District saw dramatic increases in oil and natural gas property tax revenue in fiscal 2020, both receiving the most of any ISD or county in Texas.

Statewide, Texas ISDs received more than $2 billion from taxes on oil and natural gas production, pipelines and gas utilities. Counties received $688 million.

Pecos-Barstow-Toyah ISD received $167.6 million from mineral properties producing oil and natural gas, pipelines, and gas utilities – an increase of 53 percent from fiscal 2019, far more than any other ISD. Reeves County received $74.5 million in oil and natural gas property taxes – an 80 percent increase from last year.

“The oil and natural gas industry is very important to our area,” Reeves County Judge Leo Hung said. “It has both a direct and indirect impact on our economy. It is great to hear that Reeves County is currently the top producing county in the state of Texas even though production is significantly down from last year. We are optimistic that production and drilling will increase in the coming months as a result of availability of COVID-19 vaccines and the rebound of our economy.”

Independent school districts across the Permian Basin received $978.75 million and counties in the Permian Basin received $334.3 million in oil and natural gas property taxes, the Texas Oil & Gas Association said in a statement accompanying its annual report on the statewide impact of the industry.

“While oil prices plummeted in the wake of the pandemic, the need for products made from oil and natural gas skyrocketed," Texas Oil and Gas Association President Todd Staples said. "Nearly every in-demand product we need to be safe, to save lives and to power our economy – from face shields and hand sanitizers to high-speed internet connections and computers – is made possible by oil and natural gas.”

The Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico has produced hydrocarbons for roughly 100 years. In January 2020, it supplied more than 35.6 billion barrels of oil and 125 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

“Implementing hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, and completion technology advancements during the past decade has reversed the production decline in the Permian, and the basin has exceeded its previous production peak, set in the early 1970s,” the U.S. Energy Information Agency states. “In 2019, Permian Basin production accounted for more than 35 percent of total U.S. crude oil production and more than 16 percent of total U.S. dry natural gas production. As of 2018, EIA estimates remaining proven reserves in the Permian Basin exceed 11 billion barrels of oil and 46 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making it one of the largest hydrocarbon-producing basins in the United States and the world.”

While producing a massive scale of product, the Texas oil and natural gas industry has taken the lead in developing environmental solutions to significantly reduce emissions and flaring, the association points out.

“The oil and natural gas industry is the nation’s leading investor in emission-reducing technologies and as a result, Americans are breathing the cleanest air in decades, the U.S. leads the world in reducing energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, and methane emissions from oil and natural gas systems are down 23 percent since 1990,” Staples said.

According to data from Railroad Commission of Texas, the percentage of natural gas flared out of all the natural gas produced in Texas decreased by 80 percent between June 2019 and May 2020. Last August, the commission reported that less than one half of one percent of the natural gas produced in Texas was flared or vented.

“This progress – and ways to build on it – must be part of more rational discussions about the future of our energy, the environment and the economy,” Staples added.

The reports come as President Joe Biden ordered a 60-day pause to new drilling on federal lands and halted construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

(The Center Square) – President Joe Biden’s administration issued an order temporarily halting leases and permits for oil and gas development on federal land, fulfilling a pledge he made during his campaign, despite pushback from the industry and states that rely on revenue from energy development.

Acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega signed an order that suspends approval of new land leases and drilling permits for 60 days. The order also “temporarily elevates review” of other agency decisions for DOI leadership.

“The Order does not impact existing ongoing operations under valid leases and does not preclude the issuance of leases, permits and other authorizations,” DOI said in a statement Thursday.

Biden, whose campaign pledged to ban new leases and reinstate environmental regulations rolled back by the Trump administration, has nominated U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., to serve as DOI secretary pending the Senate’s approval.

The order was criticized Thursday by energy industry groups and praised by environmental watchdog organizations.

American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement that the move means the U.S. will have to rely on foreign countries for energy development and risks American jobs.

“With this move, the administration is leading us toward more reliance on foreign energy from countries with lower environmental standards and risks to hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in government revenue for education and conservation programs,” he said. “We stand ready to engage with the Biden administration on ways to address America’s energy challenges, but impeding American energy will only serve to hurt local communities and hamper America’s economic recovery.”

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, warned that the temporary ban is “a precursor to a longer-term ban.”

Sgamma added that if the acting secretary does not hold quarterly lease sales as required by law, the Alliance is “prepared to challenge this intended ban in court at the appropriate time.”

Dan Ritzman, the lands, water and wildlife director for the Sierra Club, tweeted that the organization “welcomes this opportunity for the Biden administration to chart a new path for our country’s lands and waters.”

“Pausing new fossil fuel decisions brings us closer to healthier communities, a healthier climate and healthier wild places,” he said.

Several western states rely heavily on tax revenue from energy development that takes place on federal lands, such as Wyoming and New Mexico.

A federal lease moratorium would result in a $639.7 billion hit to gross domestic product (GDP) in Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, California, and Alaska by 2040, according to a report released last month that was commissioned by the Wyoming Legislature.

“The economic predictions are devastating, to be blunt, to Wyoming,” Gov. Mark Gordon said when the study was released.

Gordon’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the DOI’s order.

Conservation projects also rely heavily on revenue from energy development on federal lands.

DOI disbursed $8 billion from offshore and federal land energy development to the states in 2020, down from $11.69 billion in 2019.

The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), which passed Congress with bipartisan support, relies on oil and gas development royalties to pay off the National Park Service’s $12 billion maintenance backlog.

The Land Water Conservation Fund, which GAOA requires to be funded with $900 million annually, is funded by federal offshore oil and gas revenue, which in turn is distributed to states for conservation projects.

DOI announced on Tuesday that LWCF’s State and Local Assistance Program will get over $302.3 million for fiscal year 2021 that’s apportioned to states.

Colorado, for instance, is set to receive almost $5.2 million of that apportionment.

A Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson told The Center square the funding will “help support critical Colorado Parks and Wildlife projects and allow us to provide opportunities for both recreation and resource conservation. This funding helps us to ensure Coloradans will be able to enjoy our resources for generations to come.”

The Bozeman, Mont.-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) recommends utilizing user-based funding streams for conservation and recreation instead of relying on oil and gas revenue.

“Arguably, recreationists and conservationists would benefit the most from unshackling funding from energy revenues. Establishing a federal advisory committee could be an initial step toward finding a user-based model that can provide the resources necessary to steward our public lands for future generations,” PERC said in a recent report.

Biden also revoked the Keystone XL’s permit and rejoined the Paris Climate Accord, among other orders on his first day in office.

(The Center Square) – There is a reason Wisconsin Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says people are seeing his name in the newspaper and all over cable TV: Democrats want to take his Senate seat in two years.

Johnson on Thursday told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber that the recent op-ed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and all of the attention he’s getting from national news outlets has a purely political motive.

“They want the Senate seat, there’s no doubt about it,” Johnson said. “I’ve known for quite some time that they are going to do everything to destroy me. And I continue to push back on them.”

The "them," according to Johnson, is both Democrats and the media.

“We are seeing the cancel culture kick into overdrive, the purge,” Johnson said Thursday. “That’s basically what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is engaging in. They basically made my point for me.”

Johnson wrote an op-ed this week that explained the questions that millions of Trump voters continue to have about the November election. It also called out the paper for an opinion piece last week suggesting Johnson incited this month’s riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Journal Sentinel then footnoted, and refuted Johnson’s piece.

“My other point that I have been making consistently is the grotesque bias in the media and the social media has done far more harm to this democracy. They interfered in this election. They chose a side. They had an effect far greater than anything a foreign entity like Russia could ever hope to achieve,” Johnson said. “They’re just not willing to admit it.”

Johnson has not said what he plans to do about reelection in 2022. There’s speculation that he will either run for the U.S. Senate again or perhaps run for governor. There’s also some thought he might not do either. He didn’t give any insight into his future on Thursday.

Johnson did say he expects the political division in this country to get worse because of media and social media bias.

“I am so concerned about the ongoing bias in the media, and how it is just going to inflame the situation,” Johnson said. “They are the inciters. They are the ones who are responsible for a great deal of the division and the rancor in this country.”

(The Center Square) – As many as 1.6 million people in Wisconsin could be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine under the state’s newest vaccine plan. But being eligible doesn’t guarantee a shot.

The Department of Health Services’ vaccine subcommittee has agreed to an expansive list of people who will be eligible for the vaccine under Phase 1b. The list includes people over 65, teachers, prisoners and inmates, grocery store workers, mink farmers, bus drivers, and many more. DHS estimates one in three people in Wisconsin would be included in Phase 1b.

Doctors and government watchdogs say that’s a mistake.

Brett Healy, president of the MacIver Institute, said Wisconsin has been slow to get the coronavirus vaccine to people in the state. Adding over a million-and-a-half people to the list isn’t going to change that.

“According to DHS’ own statistics, [Wisconsin] has been given almost 778,000 vaccines to distribute from the federal government and they have administered 248,000 vaccine shots total to date,” Healy said Thursday. “Just 45,638 Wisconsinites have been fully vaccinated so far.”

Healy blames Gov. Tony Evers for waiting on a vaccine plan, then trying to micromanage vaccine distribution.

“We have known that the COVID-19 vaccine was coming to Wisconsin for weeks and yet, here we are in mid-January, with bureaucrats debating who should receive the vaccine,” Healy said. “And while the bureaucrats spend countless hours debating who should be eligible, they have not put in the time to develop the plan on how they will deliver the vaccine shots to real people.”

Wisconsin is ranked at the bottom of Midwestern states when it comes to vaccine distribution. That will likely only get worse if Phase 1b includes a third of the state’s population.

Vaccine committee co-chair Dr. Jonathan Temte with the UW-Madison School of Medicine on Wednesday said Wisconsin doesn’t have the doses to vaccine such a large Phase 1b group.

"It's going to be a very, very, very long time for this target to be hit," Temete said.

Healy said instead of trying to satisfy groups for political purposes, Evers and his administration should focus on the people who are most at risk from the virus.

“We need to focus on our most vulnerable populations,” Healy told The Center Square. “We know from the data that COVID-19 is a problem for those with a serious pre-existing condition and the elderly. That is exactly who should be receiving the vaccine first. Not prisoners. Not non-critical workers. It makes no sense that the Evers administration would consider a state prisoner to be the same priority as a 65-year-old person. To all of us with elderly family who we have not seen in months out of precaution, it is infuriating.”

On Interstate 59, a neon billboard used by the Alabama Department of Public Health advises motorists to get their flu and pneumonia vaccines. Placards placed atop gas pumps around the state also promote the flu vaccine.

But the vaccine that will quell COVID-19, a virus that has killed 400,000 nationwide, crippled businesses and prompted governments to force onerous restrictions on the public, gets no mention.

Karen Landers, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Health, said the state has “no specific marketing campaign going on” because “the vaccine supply is less than the demand, here and nationwide.”

Alabama, though, has plenty of medicine and many residents wondering how to get it. Records show that the state has received 444,000 doses of the vaccine as of Friday, and has vaccinated 100,000 people, using around 23% of its allotted doses.

Across the U.S., 31 million doses of the COVID vaccine have been distributed as of Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while states have administered 12 million, around 38%. The vaccine produced by pharma giants Moderna and Pfizer are two-dose treatments that provide up to 95% protection.

The failure of Alabama and other states around the country to launch vaccine advertising campaigns – touting the medicine’s efficacy and informing people how and where they can receive it – is creating potentially life-threatening confusion.

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to spend more money on vaccinations, allocating $400 billion in a plan that includes using local pharmacies (a feature borrowed from the Trump administration) and mass vaccination centers. Biden said the push will include a public awareness campaign aimed at promoting the importance of getting inoculated.

But for now the lack of advertising is striking because local and federal government agencies routinely spend large sums on public health campaigns – including warning people how to behave in response to COVID-19.

The Obama administration spent $684 million driving awareness of the Affordable Care Act starting in 2013, although it was dogged by the rollout of a federal web portal widely viewed as disastrous. The pharmaceutical industry spent $9.5 billion on digital advertising alone in 2020, according to researcher eMarketer.

One of the challenges of the COVID vaccine, as with Obamacare, is connecting with people who are hard to reach, including those without internet service or who aren’t avid news followers.

Yet while the vaccine is in the early stages of distribution, information on what it does and how to get it can only be found at the websites of state and county health departments.

By contrast, when the virus emerged last spring, local governments quickly took to the airwaves with ads urging people to “stay home, stay safe,” collectively spending millions of dollars on multi-platform announcements, including government-produced signage distributed to businesses notifying patrons that masks were required for entry.

The lack of comparable information about the vaccine is contributing to supply and demand mismatches.

When a Walgreens in Louisville, Ky., found itself sitting on vaccine ready to expire, it made a public announcement that anyone could get the vaccine. The store was subsequently overwhelmed.

For that last-minute move, the store was criticized by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who said the vaccine needed to be held for people who deserve it in accordance with CDC guidelines.

In Michigan, under some of the most onerous shutdowns in the U.S. ordered by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the lack of an information campaign has confused the public.

“No one here even knows that there is a vaccine available,” said Joel Fragomeni, a Detroit-based comedian who volunteered for AstraZeneca’s clinical trial of its COVID vaccine, which is expected to be approved in the spring. “People are still mostly locked down waiting for the weekly cases report to see what can be opened and closed.”

States were presented in October with a 57-page guide to prepare to distribute the vaccine, including two pages devoted to how to drive awareness among the public.

Among the suggestions: “Keep the public, public health partners, and healthcare providers well-informed about COVID-19 vaccine(s) development, recommendations, and public health’s efforts.”

It is not clear why the states or the federal government have been slow to advertise availability. Some experts say the unprecedented speed with which the medicine was developed may have caught authorities unprepared as they were preoccupied with other aspects of the pandemic.

In addition, broad confusion over who should get the first available doses has made messaging difficult.

In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office in August signed off on a $5 million ad campaign to promote masking. But the governor’s website homepage makes no mention of the vaccine, listing only new positive case rates. The state is sitting on 43% of the 1 million vaccine doses it has received and has yet to spend anything on vaccine awareness.

New York City in April launched a $10 million campaign advising residents how to behave as the virus spread. The state launched an additional campaign in July urging residents to wear masks.

New York has used less than half the vaccine it has been given, as people seek information on how and where to sign up to receive a dose.

California spent millions on billboards, social media and broadcast spots in July telling people to wear masks and keep away from each other, promoting the campaign in a press release on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s home page.

Newsom’s office last issued a statement on the vaccine in late December, noting that California would partner with CVS and Walgreens to inoculate residents of long-term care facilities. Since then, information has been so scarce that residents have begun to crowdsource details.

The Ad Council and the CDC continue to run 60-second announcements on CNN’s Headline News urging people to stay home, avoid businesses like restaurants and bars and distance from each other.

National television spots urging viewers to get a vaccine for shingles – which kills roughly 100 people a year – are in full rotation in places like the Weather Channel.

The Ad Council, a consortium of private firms started during World War II that produces ads for the public good, has co-produced ads since the beginning of the pandemic advising people to stay home, keep away from each other and wear masks. In November it promised a $50 million campaign to drive awareness of the vaccine.

Last week, the council announced it had not yet met that goal, although it promised a campaign was forthcoming.

In an email, Ad Council spokesman Ben Dorf said that “even while many Americans have already started the vaccination process – we recognize that there is currently a lack of confidence and credible resources for people to go to, leading to mass hesitation, fear, misinformation and complacency.”

Polls contend many Americans are reluctant to take a vaccine, with the perhaps most politically opportunistic naysayer being Vice President Kamala Harris, who in October said she wouldn’t take it if President Trump were telling her to. She was vaccinated in December.

Dorf promised advertising in the future, although he specified no time.

“This is the biggest issue of our lifetime and it requires an effort like never before, in terms of size, scale, speed and urgency,” he wrote.

Emails to the CDC were referred to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which did not respond.

Pfizer, Moderna, Walgreens and CVS did not respond to calls and emails requesting information on marketing plans for the vaccine.

(The Center Square) – Canadian company TC Energy is suspending work on the Keystone XL oil pipeline as President Joe Biden followed through on his pledge to revoke its federal permit.

The 1,700-mile pipeline project was first proposed in 2008. It was blocked by former President Barack Obama, citing environmental concerns. But revived under the Trump administration.

The pipeline, if finished, would carry approximately 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast. Passing through six U.S. states, the project has faced multiple legal challenges.

"As a result of the expected revocation of the Presidential Permit, advancement of the project will be suspended," Calgary, Alberta-based TC Energy said in a statement.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney tweeted and published a lengthy statement saying that he was “deeply concerned” about Biden’s repeal.

“Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-U.S. relationship, and undermine U.S. national security,” Kenney said.

Marty Durbin, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute, said Biden's decision will put thousands of Americans out of work and isn’t based on science.

"The pipeline – the most studied infrastructure project in American history – is already under construction and has cleared countless legal and environmental hurdles," Durbin said in a statement. "Halting construction will also impede the safe and efficient transport of oil, and unfairly single out production from one of our closest and most important allies."

Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) President David Holt said, “President Biden bowed to the demands of a handful of special interests on his first day in office at the expense of American laborers, workers, families, and small businesses who depend on reliable energy.”

Pipelines and advanced pipeline technology provide the safest method for transporting energy, the Department of Transportation reports. The quantity of oil the Keystone XL would carry every day is equal to 4,150 trucks or 1,185 rail cars, Holt notes.

“This is a pipeline that has already committed to being zero carbon emissions and operated by 100% renewable energy," he said. "It is unfortunate that, in this instance, ideology has trumped common sense, and will achieve the opposite environmental effect than was intended.”

Critics argue not completing the pipeline will reverse more than a decade of work accomplished by the Department of State, Department of Energy and PHMSA. The agencies concluded that Keystone XL would be “an incredibly safe pipeline with state-of-the-art monitoring technology, would lower gasoline and diesel prices and would reduce carbon emissions associated moving oil into American refineries.”

“Shutting this project down at a time when the U.S. has returned to being a net oil importer and lost the energy independence that took decades to achieve will, once again, put energy prices in the hands of foreign nations at the cost of our families and small businesses,” Holt added.

Revoking the permit defies environmental and economic logic, the Heritage Foundation said in a statement.

“The climate impact of the pipeline will be practically undetectable, as confirmed by the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency and State Department’s environmental impact assessment. Blocking Keystone XL isn’t going to stop the production of Canadian oil or prevent oil from reaching refiners in Texas and Louisiana,” Heritage Foundation senior analysts Nick Loris and Katie Tubb, said in a statement.

“Instead, prohibiting the pipeline will create more inefficient and riskier methods of transporting crude, whether that is more tankers from overseas or carrying Canadian crude by truck or rail. At a time when economic growth and job creation are desperately needed, is the administration going to dismiss so many thousands of well-paying, shovel-ready construction jobs?”

Environmental groups saw the move as the first among many on their wish list.

“These huge first steps show Biden is serious about climate action, but re-entering the Paris Agreement and canceling Keystone must be the start of a furious race to avert catastrophe,” Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Much more is needed, and we’re increasingly hopeful the administration will stop approving new fossil fuel projects and speed the transition to clean, distributed energy that climate science and justice demand.”

(The Center Square) – Wearing a mask at a desk in the Oval Office, President Joe Biden signed a federal mask mandate Wednesday as his first executive order.

Biden’s first event broadcast online since taking the oath of office earlier in the day addressed things he said are “bold and vital” and starting points to “rebuild the backbone of the country, the middle class” amid COVID-19.

As media were being ushered out following the signing of three orders, Biden was asked what Trump wrote in a letter a former Trump staffer acknowledged the former president left.

“The president wrote a very generous note, but because it was private, I won’t talk about it until I talk to him, but it was generous,” Biden said.

During the event, which lasted nearly 3 minutes, Biden signed three measures from a stack of more than a dozen executive orders.

“They are important, but we will need legislation for a lot of things we want to do,” Biden said.

In front of cameras, Biden briefly talked about responding to the pandemic. He adjusted his mask several times before signing the first order that he said requires “masks be worn, social distancing, on federal property, interstate commerce, etc.”

Biden had said he wants a mask mandate for the first 100 days of his administration as COVID-19 vaccines continue to be delivered across the country.

A second order he signed provides “support for underserved communities,” he said.

“And we’re going to make sure we have some bedrock equity, equality in how we treat people in health care and other things,” Biden said.

As he motioned to a stack of other orders he was expected to sign, he said a third would have the U.S. “rejoin the Paris Climate Accord as of today.”

Trump exited the Paris Climate Accord among some of his first executive actions in 2017. The former president said the treaty was not favorable to the United States.

Biden’s event Wednesday ended without any further detail on other orders.

Media reports indicate other executive actions include ending a national emergency that allowed money to be used for border wall construction, work at preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and orders reversing Trump orders on deportations, among others.

Another area Biden is addressing deals with extending deferral of student loan repayments to Sept. 30 and extending foreclosure and eviction prohibitions until March 31.

(The Center Square) – In the last hour of his presidency, Donald Trump pardoned Al Pirro, the ex-husband of Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro, and waved to thousands of supporters in Palm Beach from inside a black armored Escalade during a slow-motion south Florida motorcade to Mar-a-Lago.

After a sendoff Wednesday morning at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington that included a 21-gun salute from four Army cannons, Trump arrived aboard Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport at 10:54 a.m., more than an hour before Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.

Trump; first lady Melania; youngest son, Barron; and Trump's adult children – Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany – were greeted by cheers from hundreds of supporters at the airport with "The Star-Spangled Banner" playing on loudspeakers.

Without taking questions from reporters, the Trumps left the airport in a motorcade that slowly crawled down Southern Boulevard through West Palm Beach and was captured by local TV news crews.

The outgoing president responded with double thumb-ups to red-white-and-blue-clad supporters who were waving Trump flags and displaying more of a party atmosphere than anger over his election defeat.

Crowds along Trump’s motorcade route to Mar-a-Lago grew as it neared the causeway to Palm Beach Island, with many holding “THANK YOU” and “TRUMP WON!” signs.

As the motorcade wound into Mar-a-Lago, just as Biden was entering the Capitol to be sworn in, Trump – in what may have been the last act of his presidency – announced he was pardoning Pirro, who had been convicted of conspiracy and tax evasion and sentenced to more than two years in prison in 2000.

Besides leaving behind an uncertain legacy in the wake of his four years as president and facing questions about his continued influence and potential 2024 presidential run, Trump also faces questions at home – literally.

Most notably: Can the former president legally live in his revenue-generating, members-only club under a 27-year-old agreement?

When he turned the private residence purchased in 1985 into a private club in 1993, Trump agreed with the town of Palm Beach to limit membership to 500 and to restrict stays to no more than seven consecutive days and three weeks annually, including for Trump and his family.

Some Palm Beach residents say they will take legal action to ensure the town enforces the agreement, which the Trump Organization says doesn’t exist.

Attorney Reginald Stambaugh called on the Palm Beach Town Council in December to protect property values and relieve anxiety over security, traffic and noise.

"Palm Beach has many lovely estates for sale,” Stambaugh wrote. “Surely (Trump) can find one which meets his needs.”

That, apparently, is an option Trump is considering.

Meanwhile, his club could be facing sanctions for failing to comply with COVID-19 protocols pending an investigation by Palm Beach County.

Rep. Omari Hardy, D-Lake Worth, has called on Palm Beach County to shut down Mar-a-Lago after its New Year’s Eve party, citing many widely circulated videos showing dozens of people dancing and drinking without masks as rapper Vanilla Ice performed.

“Mar-a-Lago is a club. A club is a business. Businesses must comply with Palm Beach County’s mask order,” Hardy wrote.

(The Center Square) – Former Vice President Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States Wednesday with a promise of unity and boldness and marking the beginning of a push for progressive policies in Washington that could have a widespread impact on taxpayers.

“Today is America’s day,” Biden said. “A day of history and hope and resolve. Today is the triumph of a cause, not a candidate, and that cause is democracy. Democracy has prevailed.”

Biden said America has always been a “restless, bold and optimistic” country that looks ahead.

“We are a great nation of good people and we have much to restore, much to heal and much to gain,” he said.

Biden noted in particular the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, racial strife and economic concerns that need immediate attention.

“Forces that divide us are not new, but without unity and peace we are left with exhausting outrage.”

Biden also extended an olive branch to Republicans.

“Hear me out,” he said. “I will be a president for all Americans and will fight for those who did not support me just as much as those who did.”

Biden has said he wants to scale back some of the tax cuts contained in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which Trump signed into law and which reduced federal income taxes on individuals and businesses across the country.

In comments shortly after leaving the White House for the last time as president Wednesday, Donald Trump wished the Biden administration well before also taking a shot at his tax policies.

"I hope they don't raise your taxes, but if they do, I told you so," Trump said.

Biden and Harris also have vowed to reverse course on a number of other Trump-era policy decisions. That includes rejoining the Paris Climate Accord to combat climate change; ending funding for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and easing other strict immigration enforcement measures; revoking Trump's permit allowing construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada through the U.S., which would have increased capacity to process billions of barrels of crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas; among other new directives.

"This is just the beginning of an energy agenda that will cripple us on so many levels: jobs, cost of living, and opportunity," Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of Power The Future, writes at RealClearEnergy.org about the Keystone pipeline policy shift. "It will hurt our critical allies in Canada and Europe. It will benefit our enemies, Russia and China. And it will do absolutely nothing for the environment."

The historic day, which included the swearing in of the first-ever female and Black vice president – former California Sen. Kamala Harris – came exactly two weeks after thousands of protesters attacked the Capitol Building as the Senate and House voted to certify each state’s electoral votes.

Biden is now the oldest president ever and the 15th former vice president to ascend to the highest office.

The crowd was far smaller than past inaugurations as the National Mall and streets around the Capitol were closed off for safety and health concerns. Some 25,000 National Guard soldiers were on hand maintaining a 4.6-mile security perimeter, although about a dozen soldiers were removed ahead of time after being vetted by the FBI for ties to militia groups.

Aside from members of Congress, dignitaries on hand included former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and their spouses, and former Vice Presidents Mike Pence and Dan Quayle.

Breaking with tradition, Trump did not attend the ceremony. He and his family departed the White House shortly after 8 a.m. on Marine One for the short trip to Andrews Air Force Base and then a final ride aboard Air Force One as president to Florida.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts performed Biden’s swearing in ceremony, while Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor did the same for Harris. Justices and Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch, Amy Comey Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh were also in attendance, as well as Associate Justice Elena Kagan.

Lady Gaga performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the ceremony, with latter performances by Jennifer Lopez singing “American the Beautiful” and Garth Brooks performing “Amazing Grace.”

Due to security reasons and coronavirus protocols, the traditional inaugural parade from the Capitol to the White House was cancelled this year.

Joe Biden’s plans to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline is a gift to someone. The radical green groups for sure: they have opposed the oil link since its inception. The trucking and railroad industry will benefit, too, because once the pipeline is stopped, then the oil will be transported in and around America by something with wheels. It’s also a gift to our adversaries: for who will benefit when America and Canada can’t bring their fossil fuels to market? The competition. Russia and Venezuela will be thrilled to know their market share will increase thanks to the Biden administration’s fumble.

What’s fascinating about Keystone is how un-fascinating the project actually really is. Sure, it’s a marvel of engineering and an extraordinary accomplishment of human and mechanical skills. The 1,200 mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. Gulf Coast carrying crude oil to be refined is a great infrastructure project. A State Department study commissioned during the Obama administration (when Joe Biden was Veep, a point which requires emphasis) determined the pipeline would create 3,200 temporary construction jobs directly, 42,000 additional jobs indirectly, and generate over $2 billion in wages. For the people in Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska, the states through which the proposed pipeline will transverse, that’s an enormous opportunity.

Joe Biden claims to love infrastructure. His “Build Back Better” program commits to infrastructure programs which create “good paying” jobs and achieve “net-zero” emissions. (Know what has emissions? Trucks and trains. Know what doesn’t? Pipelines. But alas, there’s no place for facts in a party which simplistically “believes in science.”). Eliminating Keystone for purely political reasons eliminates these jobs and all the opportunities for these communities. Rural America will not fare well under the Biden energy agenda. After all, this is just the beginning.

Are pipelines scary? If you think so, I have the plot of a horror film: the call is coming from inside the house. Your house is full of pipelines. America is crisscrossed with over 2.6 million miles of pipeline. That’s enough to get to the moon and back – more than five times. Is there a risk? Of course, and the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, records all pipeline incidents. Last year there were fewer than a dozen considered “serious” and one tragically resulted in the death of four workers in Texas.

Let’s compare that to trucking, which is the fallback transportation method after the pipeline is ignorantly canceled. Another office at the Department of Transportation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, also records accidents. In 2018, the most recent year for recorded data, large trucks were involved in 4,862 fatal crashes, 112,000 crashes which resulted in injury, and 414,000 crashes which resulted in property damage.

You tell me which is greener and safer: pipelines or trucks? The facts are clear, and this is no way a knock on the trucking industry, which is a vital, noble and risky profession. It's just a technological reality.

Keystone was also making a massive renewable energy investment, and you’d think that alone would please the green Biden team. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Canada’s TC Energy Corp. TRP 0.29% is committing to spend $1.7 billion on solar, wind and battery power to operate the partially completed 2,000-mile pipeline.” Furthermore, the company pledges “also to hire a union workforce and eliminate all greenhouse-gas emissions from operations by 2030.” These points which hit the very plan Biden promises should trump (pardon the pun) politics and keep the project alive.

Canada has an economy to run, too, and the country has lots of oil to sell. If Keystone is stopped, it will simply be sold elsewhere. China? Probably. As the world’s largest oil importer at 10-11 million barrels a day, China would love to buy oil from anyone but America. Canada needs revenue and jobs. China needs oil. Losing our northern neighbor’s reliable, inexpensive, and abundant crude to the Chinese Communist Party nation would be a foreign policy collapse. But if Biden wants to continue the Obama-Biden tradition, more foreign policy disasters are to be expected.

I’ve written here before about the great gift to China which is the entire Biden energy agenda. At the same time he will be watching Canada’s oil go to China, Biden will be buying Chinese wind and solar technologies with borrowed American tax dollars. Meanwhile, Russia will be selling its natural gas to Europe, while America will join the other eunuchs of the Paris Climate Accord to keep China and Russia laughing at all of us.

Great plan. Putin and Xi themselves couldn’t have crafted a better one.

Energy policy isn’t the simplicity of soundbites. “Cancel Keystone” is a bumper sticker, not the decision of a serious politician who sees the real world fallout of jobs and geopolitics let alone the increase in emissions that will result.

This is just the beginning of an energy agenda that will cripple us on so many levels: jobs, cost of living, and opportunity. It will hurt our critical allies in Canada and Europe. It will benefit our enemies, Russia and China. And it will do absolutely nothing for the environment.

It’s almost as if Joe Biden isn’t the “moderate” we were always told he is, even if his tweets will be nicer than his predecessor.

(The Center Square) – Joe Biden took the oath of office Wednesday to become the nation's 46th president, ending four years of Donald Trump's administration and marking the beginning of a push for progressive policies in Washington that could have a widespread impact on taxpayers.

"This is America's day," Biden said in his first comments after becoming president. "This is democracy’s day, a day of history and hope, of renewal and resolve.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to Biden. Minutes before Biden was sworn in, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor administered the oath to Kamala Harris, the first Black and first female vice president.

"The American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us," Biden said in a message of unity after a contentious presidential election in which Trump challenged the vote count in several key swing states.

“To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words and requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy – unity,” Biden said. “Uniting to fight the foes we face. Anger, resentment and hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness and hopelessness. With unity, we can do great things, important things.”

Biden has said he wants to scale back some of the tax cuts contained in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which Trump signed into law and which reduced federal income taxes on individuals and businesses across the country.

Biden and Harris also have vowed to reverse course on a number of other Trump-era policy decisions. That includes rejoining the Paris Climate Accord to combat climate change; ending funding for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and easing other strict immigration enforcement measures; revoking Trump's permit allowing construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada through the U.S., which would have increased capacity to process billions of barrels of crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas; among other new directives.

"This is just the beginning of an energy agenda that will cripple us on so many levels: jobs, cost of living, and opportunity," Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of Power The Future, writes at RealClearEnergy.org about the Keystone pipeline policy shift. "It will hurt our critical allies in Canada and Europe. It will benefit our enemies, Russia and China. And it will do absolutely nothing for the environment."

Biden, a Democrat, takes over as Democrats hold control of the U.S. House and the Senate is evenly divided with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, though Vice President Harris holds the tie-breaking vote.

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty is taking another shot at Dane County’s emergency order, which places all sorts of limits on businesses and bans crowds of more than 10 people.

WILL on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in Dane County court challenging the county’s Emergency Order 10. This is the second lawsuit WILL has filed against the county’s emergency order. The first case last year failed in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court,

“This lawsuit is substantially similar to an original action WILL filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court in November 2020,” the group said in a statement. “The Court voted not to grant WILL’s original action, 4-3, without addressing the merits of the case, but four Justices indicated the claims had substantial merit.”

WILL is arguing, once again, Dane County’s board must vote on the emergency order and closures. WILL’s lawsuit says the county’s public health department does not have the constitutional power to issue such sweeping orders on its own.

“Dane County’s health department has enacted some of the strongest restrictions in Wisconsin without any express sanction from local elected officials,” WILL Deputy Counsel Luke Berg, said. “This lawsuit asks the court to rein in the ability of local, unelected health officers to unilaterally issue sweeping restrictions.”

While the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against WILL last year, the court did leave the door open to another case.

Justice Brian Hagedorn, who was the swing vote in the last case, wrote at the time WILL”s lawsuit asks “important statutory and constitutional questions that deserve judicial scrutiny.”

Dane County enacted Emergency Order 10 in November of last year, and has since moved on to Emergency Order 12. That order keeps the same restrictions in place.

In addition to limits on bars, restaurants, and other businesses as well as gatherings, Dane County’s emergency orders limit both school-related and private sports teams.

WILL is suing on behalf of two parents who say the emergency order’s ban on sports in Dane County is harming their children.

“Recent research from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health found that ‘participation in sports is not associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 among Wisconsin high school student-athletes,’ based on a survey of 207 schools in Wisconsin that allowed sports during the fall,” WILL’s lawsuit states. “Another study from UW Madison, of soccer specifically, surveyed 124 clubs from 34 states, serving over 90,000 soccer players, and found only one case of COVID-19.”

WILL filed the case in Dane County court on Wednesday.

(The Center Square) – President Joe Biden took the oath of office Wednesday to become the nation's 46th president, ending four years of Donald Trump's administration and marking the beginning of a push for progressive policies in Washington D.C. that could have a widespread impact on taxpayers.

"This is America's day," Biden said in his first comments after becoming president. "This is democracy’s day, a day of history and hope, of renewal and resolve.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to Biden. Minutes before Biden was sworn in, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor administered the oath to Harris.

"The American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us," Biden said.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have vowed to reverse course on a number of Trump-era decisions. That includes rejoining the Paris Climate Accord to combat climate change; ending funding for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and easing other strict immigration enforcement measures; revoking Trump's permit allowing construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada through the U.S., which would have increased capacity to process billions of barrels of crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas; among other new directives.

Biden, a Democrat, takes over as Democrats hold control of the U.S. House and the Senate is evenly divided with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, though Vice President Harris holds the tie-breaking vote.

Biden also has proposed scaling back some of the tax cuts contained in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which reduced federal income taxes on individuals and businesses across the country.

This story is developing and will be updated.

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed that "we will be back in some form" after leaving the White House for the final time as president.

He wished in the incoming administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris "great luck and great success," adding, "I hope they don't raise your taxes, but if they do, I told you so."

Biden and Harris are to be sworn into office a little after noon eastern Wednesday.

Speaking at Andrews Air Force Base as he was about to depart to his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, Trump cited his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, record stock market prices and economic growth, and his judicial appointments as among his administration's successes.

"What we've done has been amazing by any standard," he said.

Trump acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge, and paid respet "to the incredible people and families who suffered so gravely from the China virus. It was a horrible thing that was put into the world."

(The Center Square) – President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in as the country's 46th president Wednesday during an Inauguration Day ceremony unlike any other.

With social distancing and crowd-size limits the rule of the day during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of attendees has been scaled back significantly over health concerns.

Streets around the U.S. Capitol are blocked off, a security perimeter of 4.6 miles has been fenced off and the National Mall has been closed, all aimed at reducing crowd size.

Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, will be sworn in shortly after noon eastern before a mostly television audience. John Roberts, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, will administer the oath of office, as is tradition. Harris, who will become the first woman and the first Black vice president, will be sworn in by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina on the high court.

Biden then will deliver his first address to the nation as president.

Unlike previous transitions of power, President Donald Trump plans to return to his home in Florida hours before the inauguration takes place. Vice President Mike Pence will be on hand though, as will former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

There will be no parade following the ceremony from the Capitol to the White House, and there will be no traditional inaugural balls because of the pandemic. Instead, Biden, Harris and others will participate in a TV event called "Celebrating America."

Biden aides say he plans to sign about 100 executive orders on his first day in office, including one that will have the U.S. rejoin the Paris climate accord and another ending a travel ban on predominately Muslim countries.

When Google-owned YouTube suspended Donald Trump’s ability to post videos last week, it joined Facebook and Twitter in blocking the president, and many Trump supporters, from their platforms. Conservatives and others have denounced the moves as censorship. But the decisions by tech companies to refuse service to those they do not approve of – including the president of the United States – also raise concerns about national security.

The Department of Defense uses software created, delivered, and maintained by many of the same high-tech companies now engaged in shutting down online speech. If the titans of tech can pull the plug on public communications tools people have come to rely on, some observers fear, they might do the same to the Pentagon in response to a military action deemed unacceptable by, for example, San Franciscans.

Something along those lines already happened with Project Maven, a major Pentagon initiative using Google algorithms to identify drone targets. The software was well under way when, in 2018, thousands of Google’s workers protested their company becoming a defense contractor.

"We believe that Google should not be in the business of war," began an open letter from Google employees to company boss Sundar Pichai. They demanded that the company create a “clear policy” stating that it and its contractors never “build warfare technology.”

Bowing to this pressure from its own workforce, Google has stepped back from high-profile military projects. The company has been noticeably absent from the scramble among such firms as Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle to win the contract for the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI. A 10-year deal providing cloud computing to the Department of Defense, JEDI is worth billions of dollars.

The Pentagon could rely exclusively on established defense contractors that are not squeamish about the business they’re in. But officials have been eager to work with Big Tech, where they expect to find the top talent that will gain and maintain an edge for the U.S.

That talent is proving to be touchy. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, now has a small union less interested in winning workers’ pay and benefits than in projecting ideological might. “We will use our reclaimed power to control what we work on and how it is used,” the union’s mission statement reads.

It isn’t just external political pressures that have led Big Tech companies to de-platform Trump and his supporters; the pressure also comes from within.

“We will ensure Alphabet acts ethically and in the best interests of society,” declares the company’s workers union, confident in its own ability to discern the best interests of society.

Google isn’t the only conscientious objector. Microsoft did pursue the JEDI contract – over the objections of workers who published an open letter of their own.

“Many Microsoft employees don’t believe that what we build should be used for waging war,” the letter protested. “When we decided to work at Microsoft, we were doing so in the hopes of ‘empowering every person on the planet to achieve more,’ not with the intent of ending lives and enhancing lethality.”

'Software as a Service'

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, studies military procurement of technology. He says that tech employees are less likely to object to selling to the Pentagon “as computing becomes more like a commoditized service.” Developing generic software that can be used by anyone, including the military, may be less objectionable to Big Tech workers than crafting bespoke war-fighting code. For example, Clark says, “Microsoft sells Office 365 to DoD and has sold Office to the military for decades. Cloud computing and AI are becoming similar generic services.”

But Clark notes there is a difference between how a product such as Microsoft Office has traditionally been sold and the new cloud computing model. In the past, the purchaser would buy copies of the software, whether on discs or other media, and that software would be installed onto customers’ computers. How the customers used the software was generally beyond technology companies’ reach.

The new model is “software as a service,” says Gregory Sanders. He is a fellow and deputy director of the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In the new model, the product isn’t housed in customers’ computers, but rather in the technology companies’ own servers – in the cloud. It is convenient and allows customers to draw however much computing power they need, not unlike electricity. But if software lives in the cloud, access to the software is regulated by those who control the cloud. Big Tech has shown it can take away software from unpopular customers – and that its judgment of who deserves its products and who does not can change dramatically.

Take Amazon Web Services’ top government sector sales executive, Teresa Carlson. She enraged the rank-and-file when she promised AWS’s “unwavering” support for police, military, and intelligence customers. That was in the summer of 2018. Things were very different two years later. The May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd led to nationwide protests against police. Reacting to the rioting, Amazon announced it was “implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of Amazon’s facial recognition technology.” That technology, called Rekognition, had been made available through the cloud.

There are reasonable debates to be had about what technologies governments should have access to and how they should be used. But what if the military comes to rely on technologies such as the cloud only to find that in a crisis those technologies are shut down or disabled by companies responding to the ideological demands of their own employees? These “security of supply considerations” are risks “the Department of Defense thinks about a lot,” Sanders says.

Internal ideological revolts have roiled companies beyond the tech giants, and are becoming a common cause of conflict between labor and management, even when management shares labor’s woke values. In June, staff at the New York Times rebelled against the editorial page for publishing an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton. The Arkansas Republican had advocated enlisting the military to help quell rioting. Editorial page editor James Bennet was pushed out and six months later his deputy resigned as well.

The Hudson Institute’s Clark says that if a tech giant withdrew access to services it had agreed to provide to the military, it would likely have to pay penalties for breach of contract. Such fines might make little difference to the bottom line of Big Tech. But the loss of cloud capabilities in the middle of a conflict could be disastrous for warfighters.

Sanders says the Pentagon could always invoke the Defense Production Act “if a company pulled out of a service provision in a crisis environment in a non-orderly manner.” As the Congressional Research Service puts it, the act “allows the President to require persons (including businesses and corporations)” to “prioritize and accept government contracts for materials and services.”

That might keep tech companies from leaving the government fully in the lurch in a crisis, but it isn’t a guaranteed strategy for success.

“The quality of work you get when compelling an objecting vendor wouldn’t necessarily be the best, so DoD wouldn’t want to invoke those authorities needlessly,” Sanders says.

Big Tech has proved willing to shut down service and shut out customers who become unpopular with Silicon Valley. That should be a red flag for government agencies that are considering housing their capabilities in the cloud – do they want to be constrained by the tech industry’s morals of the moment?

(The Center Square) – Florida U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy will introduce a bill to revise the federal background-check process to bar QAnon believers and those who participated in the Capitol insurrection from receiving security clearances necessary to hold government positions.

Murphy’s bill, the Security Clearance Improvement Act of 2021, would ask applicants seeking security clearances whether they have been “a member of, associated with, or knowingly engaged in activities conducted by organizations or movements that circulate conspiracy theories and false information.”

“A security clearance is a privilege, not a right,” tweeted Murphy, a Winter Park Democrat. “If an American participated in the Capitol attack – or if they subscribe to the dangerous anti-government views of QAnon, which has been linked to that attack – then they have no business being entrusted with our nation’s secrets.”

QAnon conspiracy theories have been weaved from cryptic postings on anonymous message boards since October 2017 from "Q," who claims to be a U.S. intelligence official with a Q-level security clearance.

Murphy, a third-term congressional representative who sits on the House Armed Services and Ways and Means committees, is a former national security analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense.

As someone who conducted federal security background checks, Murphy said “it is highly unlikely” anyone who believes "Q" “will be found by investigators to have shown the conduct, character and loyalty to the United States prerequisite to holding a national security position and viewing classified information.”

Murphy’s proposal also precludes participants in the Capitol insurrection Jan. 6 from holding security clearances.

“Any individual who participated in the assault on the Capitol or who is a member of the conspiracy movement QAnon should be required to disclose this fact when applying to obtain or maintain a federal security clearance,” she said.

According to Murphy’s office, the bill requests the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to add a question to Section 29 of the 130-page Standard Form 86 (SF-86) questionnaire that queries applicants whether they have been “a member of, associated with, or knowingly engaged in activities … that circulate conspiracy theories and false information.”

The SF-86 background check is for first-time applicants and renewals for security clearances to assess an individual’s “behavior, activities, and associations” to determine whether the individual is “reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and loyal to the U.S.”

“Armed with this information,” Murphy said, “the U.S. government will be in a better position to make the discretionary decision about whether the applicant is ‘reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and loyal to the U.S’ and thus deserving of a security clearance.”

If adopted, several of Murphy’s Republican House colleagues, such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, could be among those barred from holding security clearances because of their association with QAnon.

Greene has dismissed the shooting that left 17 dead at Parkland’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day 2018 as a “false flag” attack on Second Amendment rights.

Boebert, like Greene, elected to her first term Nov. 3, is among congressional representatives facing internal scrutiny for allegedly leading “reconnaissance tours” before the assault.

Boebert called the “reconnaissance” allegations and Murphy’s proposed security clearance prohibitions, as attacks by Democrats “to exhaust my time and my resources to get me to back down. What they don’t realize is these attacks are only solidifying my base and adding more support. The people know I’m here for them.”

(The Center Square) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to distance himself from President Donald Trump and on Tuesday blamed the president in part for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Opening the Senate as it returned before Wednesday’s inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, the Kentucky Republican senator praised Congress for continuing its work through the riot, which he said was incited in part by Trump.

“The last time the Senate convened, we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty,” McConnell said on the floor. “This mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the President and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”

Before the Capitol riot, McConnell had urged senators not to challenge the Electoral College certifications, calling the election the will of people.

Following the riot, McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, resigned as Trump’s Secretary of Transportation.

McConnell called November’s Senate elections that divided the body evenly between Republicans and Democrats an opportunity to seek common ground, while remaining respectful.

“There are serious challenges that our nation needs to continue confronting. But there will also be great and hopeful opportunities for us to seize,” McConnell said. “Certainly November’s elections did not hand any side a mandate for sweeping ideological change. Americans elected a closely divided Senate, a closely divided House and a presidential candidate who said he’d represent everyone.

“So our marching orders from the American people are clear. We are to have robust discussions and seek common ground. We are to pursue bipartisan agreement everywhere we can…and check and balance one another respectfully where we must.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s largest dairy group wants to keep milk as milk, and wants to make sure the state’s environmental rules for large farms are settled.

The Dairy Business Association on Tuesday released its 2021 legislative wish list.

“The DBA’s legislative priorities reflect the complexity of the dairy community,” DBA President Amy Penterman said on Tuesday. “We urge the governor and legislators to put the pieces together as they move their agendas forward and shape the next budget.”

The Dairy Business Association is Wisconsin’s largest dairy group, and dairy is one of Wisconsin’s largest industries. Penterman said dairy farms in the state generate billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

Topping the Dairyman’s to-do list is a balancing of the state’s environmental regulations.

“We can have a system that saves time, relies more on private industry, and focuses on continuous and quantifiable improvement,” DBA government affair director John Holevoet said Tuesday. “Increased [environmental regulation] fees and more staff are often offered as solutions to the program’s problems. We are not opposed to either of these things, but only if they are part of a package of broader improvements to the overall program.”

Gov. Tony Evers’ administration has taken a hard look at environmental regulations and dairy farms, with an eye toward regulation over the past two years, including an increased focus from the governor’s office on water quality standards.

Holevoet said that water quality is on the table, but there needs to be a balance.

“Last session’s water quality task force bills were just the beginning of the discussion,” Holevoet said. “Among other aspects, we need more funding for groundwater mapping, well testing, the non-point program, and farmer-led watershed conservation groups.”

The DBA also wants $7.8 million per year for the Dairy Innovation Hub with the University of Wisconsin System and flexibility in the UW Extension program.

Holevoet said dairymen in the state also want truth-in-labeling laws.

“The plant-based industry uses terms like milk, cheese and ice cream to ride on the marketing coattails of dairy farmers and processors,” Holevoet said. “Customers are being misled and farmers and processors are being treated unfairly.”

(The Center Square) – About 1.6 million Illinoisans with a Facebook page who joined a class-action lawsuit could get about $350 in the coming months as part of a settlement.

The checks are from a $650 million settlement that alleged the social media giant violated Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act.

One out of every five eligible Facebook users filed a claim before the Nov. 23 deadline. Christopher Dore, partner at Edelson PC, said the turnout was high for a typical class action lawsuit.

“There were 1.6 million claims filed, which is really remarkable for a class-action,” he said. “Often in class actions, it’s in the single digits.”

The figures were released last week during a final approval hearing in California federal. The payouts could still get tangled up further in court.

“If there are no appeals, we hope that checks would be distributed in the next two-or-so months after that. If there are appeals, it becomes a little bit more unpredictable and, unfortunately, could extend out many more months after that,” Dore said.

Those who qualified aren’t necessarily Illinoisans but could be former residents. To qualify for the class action, you had to be one of the approximately 7 million Facebook users that had a profile after June of 2011. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans have left the state, most commonly heading to Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, or neighboring states. They would qualify as long as they lived in the state for at least six months during that near-decade window.

Dore said the estimated payout is still in line with their initial estimate of between $200 and $400 but was slightly lowered after a last-minute rush of Facebook users seeking class participation just before the deadline.

The suit was initially filed in 2015 by Edelson, claiming Facebook’s facial recognition feature was taking biometric data from users without their express permission, a central tenet of BIPA.

Illinois’ law is unique in that it’s the only one of its kind that allows for private action, whereas other states rely on their attorney general to file suit.

Fines for breaking BIPA start at $1,000 per instance and can be upgraded to $5,000 if it can be proven that the accused purposefully broke the statute.

(The Center Square) – After a slow start with coronavirus vaccinations, the state of Wisconsin is flinging open the door for the next round.

Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm on Tuesday announced that anyone 65-years-old and older will be able to get the vaccine starting next week.

“Older adults have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and prioritizing this population will help save lives,” Palm said in a statement. “Wisconsin systems and operations are ready to vaccinate more people.”

Wisconsin has been among the slowest in the Midwest to administer its vaccine doses. As of Tuesday, DHS reported doctors and nurses have given-out 248,185 of the 473.300 doses that have been shipped to the state. That’s just over 52% of available doses. Wisconsin has been allocated over 779,000 doses, but many of them have not yet been shipped.

Palm said Wisconsin receives about 70,000 first-dose vaccines per week, so she added it will take some time to vaccinate the 700,000 people 65 and older in the state.

“The amount of vaccine we get from the federal government will determine how quickly we can get these groups vaccinated. Our partners in health care, pharmacies and local public health are ready and up to the task,” Palm said.

Wisconsin has taken its time, and faced criticism for, deciding who will be among those to get the vaccine next. The state’s Grocers’ Association last week blasted DHS for leaving 60,000 grocery store workers off the list while including people in jail and prison.

Palm said DHS’s vaccine subcommittee will decide who will be included in the next round of vaccinations later this week.

The news of a new, more open vaccine list is welcome at the Wisconsin Capitol.

Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, on Tuesday said it was about time.

“Just last week, my colleagues and I sent a letter to DHS Secretary-Designee Andrea Palm to tell her to ‘get out of the way’ so that our local healthcare providers and public health agencies could deploy vaccines to the most vulnerable members of our communities,” Marklein said. “I am thankful that she heard our call and is allowing our local hospitals and healthcare providers to save lives.”

Marklein said, however, there is no need to wait to get the vaccine into people’s arms. He said part of DHS’ order allows doctors and nurses to use extra vaccine doses on eligible patients before the vaccine expires.

“They can begin right away!,” Marlin added.

(The Center Square) – Betsy DeVos abruptly stepped down as Secretary of Education in the wake of the unprecedented tumult at the U.S. Capitol. How should we summarize her legacy? Despite the limitations of her office to truly effect change, she clearly made a bold mark for a life-changing cause she deeply believes in – school choice.

DeVos finishes as one of the longest-serving Cabinet members in the waning Trump administration. During her term she endured more than her fair share of vitriol, mostly fueled by union leaders who carried grudges over her political support for school choice at the state level.

As of February 2017, when DeVos was sworn in, 25 states combined to provide vouchers, tax credits or savings accounts to nearly 400,000 students whose families used the extra funds to choose private education. Throughout her tenure, DeVos sought to expand such opportunities to even more students, regardless of where they lived.

President Donald Trump originally campaigned on providing $20 billion for school choice. Families in need of educational alternatives awaited a more detailed proposal, even as some supporters raised reasonable questions about the dangers of overreach and entanglement that could come with federal dollars.

No plan of that size ever materialized in the Republican-led Congress. Federal lawmakers eventually unveiled a smaller bill to create Education Freedom Scholarships, but only after union-friendly Democrats regained charge of the House. While that ultimately doomed the initiative, DeVos never shied away from the role of champion.

As proposed, Education Freedom Scholarships would not have touched dollars from the federal treasury, which would have brought restrictive strings for families and schools. Instead, their proponents sought to encourage charitable giving for student needs through a $5 billion pool of tax credits. The idea was to let states set the parameters for who could use the dollars and how, with the federal government granting remarkably broad latitude.

Smaller-scale efforts to enhance parental choice had a mixed record during DeVos’s tenure. Thanks to a broader federal tax reform law, families can now use tax-exempt dollars in a 529 college savings plan to cover private K-12 tuition costs. Some states offer further tax benefits, which can make it easier to afford more education options. While some families can take advantage of the 529 strategy, others lack the financial resources to do so.

Students from lower-income families still face lingering obstacles to greater opportunities, and they could benefit from changes in federal funding patterns. Two rounds of coronavirus relief, totaling nearly $70 billion, have been approved for elementary and secondary schools. Congress has channeled all the money through the same old broken formula, which disproportionately favors students in larger districts over smaller districts and charter and private schools.

To her credit, DeVos fought in court, albeit unsuccessfully, for virus relief funds to be shared more fairly with students in nonpublic schools. Going forward, though, policymakers should direct some share of the next massive federal aid package to families who lack access to in-person instruction or need support for at-home learning expenses.

DeVos’s greatest work may have been to speak out consistently and forcefully on behalf of the primary role parents play in directing their children’s education. In particular, she defended the educational choices of poor and minority families.

“Any family that has the economic means and the power to make choices is doing so for their children,” DeVos said, rebuking “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl for her inaccurate charges about Michigan charter schools. “I’m fighting for the parents who don’t have those choices. We need all parents to have those choices.”

Over nearly four years leading the U.S. Department of Education, DeVos has ruffled more than a few feathers. As she steps down, the battles over educational choice will continue, especially at the state level.

Opponents of choice can be expected to define those debates much as they have sought to frame her agenda, in terms of competing forms of schooling: district vs. charter, or public vs. private. But DeVos insisted that such an approach is misplaced.

“Instead of dividing the public when it comes to education, the focus should be on the ends, not the means,” she said. “Adults should stop fighting over students and start fighting for students.”

On Jan. 14, 2021, the United States judicial system took a powerful stand for property rights and the rule of law. Ten years after Venezuela’s socialist regime stole hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of investments from Canadian mining company Crystallex, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware ruled that Crystallex is entitled to reclaim their due. Crystallex is now one step closer to selling shares of Citgo, which is owned by the despotic regime, in order to be compensated for its loss of property.

The court rightly rejected Citgo’s plea to conduct the sale itself, concluding, “Venezuela … has had every opportunity to pay its legitimate, Court-recognized debt to Crystallex, including before, during, and after the arbitration…[but instead] made Crystallex undertake a decade’s worth of extensive and expensive efforts to collect on its judgment…” This language sends a simple, powerful message: theft will never be tolerated. Despots and strongmen the world over ought to take note.

At the heart of the court’s ruling lies a tragic, complicated backstory that speaks to the perils of socialism and expropriation. As even occasional followers of the news know, Venezuela is currently run by the ruthless and vindictive dictator Nicolás Maduro.

A decade ago, the nation’s leadership was no less harsh but temporary prosperity masked terrible government policies. Hugo Chavez’s regime came to power in 1999 and rode a surge of oil demand through the 2000s that filled government coffers and created illusory economic success. Chavez’s plan ensured that regime officials would profit off these temporary gains as much as possible via nationalization and bribe payments from companies fearing expropriation.

When oil proved insufficient to fuel growth, the regime set its sights on another lucrative sector: gold mining. In 2008, Fox News reported the impending takeover of “the nation’s largest gold mine, operated by Canada’s Crystallex International Corp., as President Hugo Chavez gradually brings mining operations under state control.”

Several years earlier, Crystallex had been given the right to operate out of the Las Cristinas mine. Unfortunately, after Crystallex had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment, community development, and mining operations, Chavez’s government promptly ripped the contract to shreds in 2011 and sold off the rights to another company.

Yet, Crystallex wasn’t ready to simply write off its losses and kowtow to the predatory Chavez regime. In 2016, after several years of litigation, the World Bank’s international arbitration facility in Washington ruled in favor of Crystallex and against Venezuela for $1.4 billion, which accounts for the value of the investment, plus interest, lost by the company. Venezuela was now obligated to repay Crystallex for cancelling its contract, yet this was easier said than done.

Chavez’s successor Maduro wasn’t willing to cough up the money that his mentor stole. Fortunately, international arbitration rules concerning awards against governments recognize that states can be stubborn; consequently, the rules allow companies holding awards to pursue state-owned assets located abroad.

And finally, after a string of costly lawsuits, Crystallex is closer to reclaiming what was stolen from them. Now, the Treasury Department must stop its unilateral and unfounded blockade of Crystallex’s property rights and allow the sale of Citgo to proceed in the name of justice. Once confirmed, President-elect Joe Biden’s Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen has an opportunity to make this situation right by directing her Office of Foreign Assets Control to immediately allow Crystallex to proceed with its claim.

It is troubling that a favorable judgment for the mining company took such a long time. A smaller company may not have had the wherewithal to get their day in court. Fortunately, Crystallex’s legal win creates a powerful precedent that can readily be deployed whenever a despot resorts to theft. The U.S. has a long, proud track-record in standing up for freedom and putting despotic regimes in their place. On Jan. 14, the Third Circuit reaffirmed that property rights cannot be usurped by despotic regimes. We hope that Biden’s Treasury Department agrees.

(The Center Square) – President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday will look far different from those in recent memory due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and a violent outbreak at the Capitol two weeks ago.

The number of attendees has been scaled back for health precautions, and some 25,000 National Guardsmen will be on patrol. Streets around the Capitol are blocked off, a security perimeter of 4.6 miles has been fenced off and the National Mall has been closed, all aimed at reducing crowd size. There also will not be a parade following the ceremony from the Capitol to the White House.

Members of Congress, who normally get dozens of tickets to the event, will get just one guest ticket each this year. Incoming and outgoing Cabinet secretaries and Supreme Court justices are also expected to attend.

National Guardsmen assigned to the security detail in the capital are undergoing additional background screenings, although Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said Monday there is “no intelligence indicating an insider threat.”

At the same time, the security presence at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan will begin to loosen. New York City Police Department officials said streets around the building will reopen to vehicle traffic and a communications center inside will be dismantled.

President Donald Trump plans to leave the White House early Wednesday morning and arrive at his home in Florida before Biden is sworn in at noon. On his final full day in office, Trump plans to issue close to 100 pardons, although it is unclear yet if that will include himself and his family. White House staff say they are also trying to persuade Trump to continue the tradition of presidents leaving a hand-written note in the Oval Office for the successor.

Biden aides say he plans to sign about 100 executive orders on his first day in office, including one that will have the U.S. rejoin the Paris climate accord and another ending a travel ban on predominately Muslim countries.

Biden also said recently that he wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. It is currently $7.25. The Congressional Budget Office said such a move would result in 1.3 million jobs being lost.

Country singer Garth Brooks is expected to perform as part of the swearing-in ceremony. Brooks told reporters it is not a political statement but rather that he supports Biden’s call for unity. Brooks said Biden’s wife, Jill, called him personally to extend the invitation.

In its final days, the Trump administration is seeking to disrupt the way progressive activists increasingly impose their will on big business: through banks controlling the loan lifelines to the economy.

The Fair Access to Financial Services Rule (FAFSR), just finalized by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), aims to prevent lenders from blackballing businesses in industries opposed by the left by requiring banks to demonstrate that their loan decisions are “based on quantitative, impartial risk-based standards,” rather than political or reputational concerns.

FAFSR is a response to successful pressure campaigns waged by environmental groups and congressional Democrats, which culminated in every major American bank refusing to finance drilling projects in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), despite such drilling being authorized by President Donald Trump in 2017.

Bryan Hubbard, an OCC spokesman, told RealClearInvestigations that the rule codifies longstanding OCC guidance on banks’ obligation to provide equitable access to their services, and will ensure that banks are not “terminating entire categories of customers.”

The rule has been published in the Federal Register, though it may prove short-lived. Many Democrats oppose the measure, and they will have 60 legislative days to disapprove it by a simple majority vote, as provided under the Congressional Review Act.

The Arctic drilling conflict highlights the power of progressive groups to intimidate, cajole, and partner with corporate powerhouses to advance their agenda – often beyond legislative confines. Through boycotts and other pressure campaigns, progressives have sought to push corporations to adopt their social and cultural values on issues ranging from climate-change policy to gun control. Firearms dealers, oil producers, payday lenders, and workers in other controversial industries have had their access to capital stunted by these campaigns, which are often aimed at the circulatory system of the economy – the banking industry.

Oil companies had spent decades working through Washington channels – engaging in lobbying, writing white papers, and, of course, offering generous campaign contributions to sympathetic legislators – to obtain permission to drill in ANWR.

The debate over drilling in the nation’s largest wildlife reserve has raged since portions of the 19-million-acre area were first set aside under President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960. Twenty years later, President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which expanded the size of the reserve but opened up a coastal plain (the so-called 1002 Area) to oil exploration, subject to prior congressional approval.

That authorization has proven elusive, as preserving ANWR became a cause célèbre among environmentalists.

In December 2017, however, Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which included a provision written by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski authorizing oil exploration in the 1002 Area. The Republican lawmaker speculated that the project could generate “$60 billion in royalties for [Alaska] alone.”

As the required environmental review process moved forward, opponents took action.

In January 2020, Senate Democrats sent a letter to all major American banks, requesting that they “stop financing . . . oil and gas drilling and exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” in order to better “prepar[e] the U.S. economy to weather the growing impacts of the climate crisis.” The letter echoed themes found in later pressure campaigns waged by such environmental advocacy groups as the Sierra Club and Greater Good.

The banks fell quickly in line. In February, Wells Fargo announced that it would not “directly finance oil and gas projects in the Arctic region, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).” Citigroup declared that it would “not provide project-related financing for oil and gas exploration and production in the Arctic Circle.” By Dec. 1, every major American bank had announced its refusal to finance drilling in the region, despite congressional authorization for development.

In response, Murkowski and Alaska’s other members of Congress sent a joint letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in June, urging him to take action. The delegation highlighted how the banks in question were using “reputation risk” – the risks associated with public disfavor brought by financing politically and morally controversial projects – as a justification to deny Arctic drillers access to capital.

“By denying financing under the guise of reputation risk,” the lawmakers wrote, “these [banks] are discriminating against America’s interests, our economic recovery, and our workers, all while utilizing significant federal support and benefits.”

The regulation proposed by the OCC aims not only to end this standoff but also to ensure that other businesses “involved in politically controversial but lawful” industries are not excluded from capital markets.

Hubbard of OCC emphasized that banks receive federal deposit insurance and are given “the privilege of a national license to operate,” a license that he claims imposes on banks certain obligations. Banks have a duty, Hubbard said, to provide proportionate access to financial services, even for clients involved in legal but politically controversial industries.